Saw
Saw is a 2004 American independent psychological thriller film directed by James Wan from a screenplay by Saw Directed by James Wan Produced by Gregg Hoffman Mark Burg Oren Koules Screenplay by Leigh Whannell Story by James Wan Leigh Whannell Starring Cary Elwes Danny Glover Monica Potter Michael Emerson Ken Leung Tobin Bell Leigh Whannell Music by Charlie Clouser Cinematography David A. Armstrong Editing by Kevin Greutert Studio Evolution Entertainment Twisted Pictures Distributed by Lionsgate Release date(s) January 19, 2004 (2004-01-19) (Sundance Film Festival)October 29, 2004 (2004-10-29) Running time 103 minutes Country United States Language English Budget $700,000 Box office $103 million Leigh Whannell and story by Whannell and Wan. It stars Cary Elwes, Danny Glover, Monica Potter, Michael Emerson, Ken Leung, Whannell and Tobin Bell. It is the first feature film by Wan and Whannell and the first installment of the seven-part film series Saw film series. The film's story revolves around two men who are chained in a dilapidated subterranean bathroom and are each given instructions via a microcassette recorder on how to escape. One is told he must escape the bathroom, while the other is told to kill him before a certain time, or his family will die. Meanwhile, police detectives investigate and attempt to apprehend the mastermind behind the "game". The screenplay was written in 2001 but after failed attempts to get the script produced in Wan and Whannell's home country, Australia, they were urged to travel to Los Angeles. In order to help attract producers they shot low-buget film short film from a scene out of the script. This proved successful in 2003 as producer from Evolution Entertainment (who later formed Twisted Pictures) were immediately attached. The film was given a small budget and shot on a short schedule of 18 days. The film was first screened on January 19, 2004. Lionsgate picked up the rights and released the film in the United States and Canada on October 29, 2004. Critical responses was generally mixed and divided. Compare to it's low budget, Saw performed very well at the box office grossing more than $103 million worldwide and becoming, at the time, one of the most profitable horror film since 1996's Scream. The success of the film prompted a green-light of a sequal soon after Saw's opening weekend, which was released the following October. Plot ﻿Adam (Leigh Whannell), a photographer, awakens in a water-filled tub and finds himself in a disused bathroom along with Dr, Lawrence Gordon(Cary Elwes), a oncologist. Both men are chained at the ankle to the pipes at the opposite ends of the room. Lying between them is a corpse in a small pool of blood holding a revolver and a microcassette recorder. Adam and Lawrence learn from tapes in their pockets that Adam must escape the bathroom, while Lawrence must kill Adam before six o'clock, or he'll lose his wife and daughter and be left to die. Lawrence's tape also implies that the corpse between them was a similar victim who shot himself before succumbing to the effects of a poison. They find a bag containing two hacksaws, though neither is able to cut through the chains. Lawrence realizes thatthe saws are meant to be used on their feet. Flashbacks show that while Lawrence was talking with some students and an orderly named Zep Hindle (Michael Emerson) about the terminal brain cancer of a man named John Kramer (Tobin Bell), he was approached by detectives David Tapp (Danny Glover) and Steven Sing (Ken Leung),about his penlight being found out the scene of a Jigsaw "game". He viewed a testimony of Amanda Young (Shawnee Smith), a herion addict, who is the only known survivor of the Jigsaw's games that believes that her experence made her a better person. Other victims of Jigsaw's games include Paul Leahy (Mike Butters), who was trapped in a cage filled with razor wire, and Mark Wilson (Paul Gutrecht), who was trapped in a room with a flammable substance all over his body along with a candle to help him read the walls covered with numbers that hid the combination to a safe. Meanwhile, Lawrence's wife and daughter, Alison Gordon (Monica Potter) and Diana Gordon (Makenzie Vega), are being held captive in their home by Zep who is also watching Adam and Lawrence through a camera behind the bathroom's mirror. Their house is simultaneously being watched by Tapp, who was discharged from the force after becoming obsessed with the Jigsaw case when he and Sing tried to save Jeff from being killed by Jigsaw. Jigsaw managed to make a run for it after slashing Tapp's throat, and Sing was killed by a shotgun booby trap while pursuing him. After being discharged, Tapp began stalking Lawrence. Back in the bathroom, Lawrence finds a mobile phone that can receive calls but not send them. Back at Lawrence's house Zep moves to kill Alison, but she frees herself and manages to overpower Zep while calling Lawrence again. Zep's shooting gained Tapp's attention in the process. He arrives in time to save Alison and Diana from Zep, allowing them to escape. Zep then flees to the sewers with Tapp in pursuit. Lawrence, who is only aware of gunshots and screaming on the phone, is zapped by the ankle chain as well and loses reach of the phone; in desperation, he saws off his feet and shoots Adam with the corpse's revolver in the shoulder. Zep, who shot Tapp during the chase, enters the bathroom intent on killing Lawrence, only to be blindsided by Adam and beaten to death. As lawrence crawls away with the promise that he'll return with help, Adam searches Zep's body for a key and finds yet another microcassette recorder. As he plays the tape he learns that Zep was only following rules to obtain an antidote for the slow poison within his body; the corpse in the middle of the room rises to it's feet and reveals itself as the real Jigsaw killer. Adam grabs Zep's pistol and tries to shoot Jigsaw but is electrically shocked by his hidden remote control before he can do so. Jigsaw then turns off the lights and seals the door to the bathroom, leaving Adam to die. Cast Cary Elwes as Dr. Lawrence Gordon- Elwes was sent the short film on DVD and was immediately interested in the film. He read the script in one setting and was drawn in by the "uniqueness and originality " of the story. To prepare for his role as an oncologists, he met a doctor at UCLA's Department of Neurosurgery. Leigh Whannell as Adam Danny Glover as Detective David Tapp Ken Leung as Detective Steven Sing Dina Myers as Kerry Mike Butters as Paul Paul Gutrecht as Mark Michael Emerson as Zep Hindle Benito Martinez as Brett Shawnee Smith as Amanda- Smith whom is not a horror fan, initially refused the role, calling the script "horrific". However, after also watching the short, she agreed to the role which was the part that Whannell portrayed in the short. Makenzie Vega as Diana Gordon Monica Potter as Alison Gordon Ned Bellamy as Jeff Alexandra Chun as Carla Avner Garbi as Father Tobin Bell as Jigsaw/John Producer Oren Koules has an uncredited role as Amanda's dead cellmate Production Development and Writing After finishing film school and unable to find help funding a feature film, Australian director James Wan and Australian writer Leigh Whannell decided to write a film in 2001 and fund it themselves. Wan said, "And seriously, it was the idea, Saw, really came out of that frustration". The two thought the cheapest script to shoot would involve two men chained in a room with no windows. Whannell said, "So I actually think the restrictions we had on our bank accounts at the time, the fact that we wanted to keep the film contained, helped us come up with the ideas in the film". After failed attempts to get the script produced in Australia from 2001 to 2002, literary agent Ken Greenblat read the script and suggested they travel to Los Angles where their chances of finding an interested studio were greater. Wan and Whannell initially refused, due to lack of traveling funds but the pair's agent, Stacey Testro, convinced them to go. In order to help studios take interest in the script, Whannell provided AU$5,000 (US$2,000) to make a 7-minute short film based on the script's jaw trap scene, which they thought would prove most effective. Whannell played David, the man wearing the Reverse Bear Trap. Working at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Whannell and Wan knew cameramen who were willing to provide technical assistance for the short. Wan shot the short with a 16mm camera in over two days and transferred the footage to DVDs to shop along with the script. Whannell wanted to play the lead character in the feature film. The short helped show that Wan and Whannell was a "director-actor team" rather than just wanting to sell the script. Wan said, "Leigh and I just loved the project so much and we wanted a career in filmmaking so we stuck to our guns and said, 'Look, guys, if you want this project, we're coming on board - Leigh has to act in it and I have to direct it". In early 2003, while in Los Angeles and before they met with producer Gregg Hoffman, Hoffman's friend pulled him into his office and showed him the short. Hoffman said, "About two or three minutes into it, my jaw hit the floor". He quickly showed the short and script to his partners Mark Burg and Oren Koules of Evolution Entertainment (who soon formed Twisted Pictures). The producers read the screenplay that night and two days later offered Wan and Whannell creative control and 25% of the net profits. Even though Wan and Whannell received "better offers" from studios like DreamWorks and Gold Circle Films, they all were not willing to chance Wan's directing and Whannell's acting in the lead role. Evolution Entertainment registered the script with the United States Copyright Office on August 26, 2003. Whannell said the conundrum of the premise of the story was: "Two people are stuck in a room, they've been put there by somebody. Who put them there and why?". The answer came when Whannell was working at a job he was unhappy with and began having migraines. Convinced it was a brain tumor, he went to a neurologists to have an MRI and while sitting nervously in the waiting room he thought, "What if you were given the news that you had a tumor and you were going to die soon? How would you react to that?". He imagined the character Jigsaw having been given one or two years to live and combined that with the idea of Jigsaw putting others in a literal version of the situation, but only giving them a few minutes to chose their fate. Whannell described the film as being a thriller with horror elements, while producer Mark Burg categorized it as a psychological thriller. Wan did not intend to make a "torture porn" film as the film only had one short segment of "torture". He said the film "played out like a mystery thriller". It was not until the sequels that the plot focused more on torture scenes. Filming and post-production Saw was given a budget of $700,000. The film was shot in an abandoned Los Angeles warehouse 18 days. The bathroom was the only set that had to be built. Danny Glover completed his scenes in two days. It took one day for Shawnee Smith's scenes to be shot, which Wan described as "physically taxing". Due to the tight schedule, Wan could not afford to shoot more than a couple of takes per actor. Wan commented about the very short shooting schedule, "It was a really tough struggle for me. Every day, it was me fighting to get the shots I did not get. I had high aspirations, but there’s only so much you can do. I wanted to make it in a very Hitchcockian style of filmmaking, but that style of filmmaking takes time to set up and so on". He said the style instead ended up being "more gritty and rough around the edges due to the lack of time and money that we had to shoot the movie with" and it ultimately became the aesthetic of the film. In post-production, Wan found he did not have enough shots or takes to work with as he was "basically shooting rehearsals". Having a lot of missing gaps in the final product, him and editor Kevin Greutert made up shots to mend together during editing; such as making a shot look like a surveillance camera feed and using still photographs. He explained, "We did a lot of things to fill in gaps throughout the film. Whatever we cut to newspaper clippings and stuff like that, or we cut to surveillance cameras, or we cut to still photography within the film, which now people say, 'Wow, that's such a cool experimental style of filmmaking', we really did that out of necessity to fill in gaps we did not get during the filming". Music The soundtrack was mainly composed by Charlie Clouser, which took six weeks to complete. Other songs were performed by Front Line Assembly, Fear Factory, Enemy, Pitbull Daycare and Psycho Pumps. Megadeth's song "Die Dead Enough" was originally set to be featured in the film, but was not used for undisclosed reasons. The soundtrack was released on October 5, 2004 by Koch Records. Johnny Loftus of Allmusic gave it three out of five stars. He said that Clouser "really nails it with his creaky, clammy score" and that he "understands that Saw's horror only works with a heady amount of camp, and he draws from industrial music in the same way". He particularly liked, "Cigarette", "Hello, Adam", and "F**k This S*!t", commenting that they "blend chilling sounds with harsh percussion and deep-wound keyboard stabs". Saw Original Motion Picture Soundtrack No. Title Writer(s) Artist Length 1. "Sturm" Rhys Fulber Bill Leeb Front Line Assembly 6:07 2. "Hello, Adam" Charlie Clouser Clouser 3:57 3. "Bite the Hand That Bleeds" Burton C. Bell Fear Factory Raymond Herrera Olde Wolbers Fear Factory 4:01 4. "Last I Heard..." Clouser Clouser 4:40 5. "Action" Jason Slater Troy Van Leeuwen Enemy 3:43 6. "Reverse Beartrap" Clouser Clouser 4:47 7. "You Make Me Feel So Dead" Stephen Ladd Bishop Charles Todd Conally Don Van Stavern Pitbull Daycare 3:49 8. "X Marks the Spot" Clouser Clouser 4:34 9. "Wonderful World" Flemming Norre Larsen Jesper Schmidt Psycho Pumps 5:00 10. "Cigarette" Clouser Clouser 3:07 11. "We're Out of Time" Clouser Clouser 3:48 12. "F**k This S*!t" Clouser Clouser 4:09 13. "Hello Zepp" Clouser Clouser 3:00 14. "Zepp Overture" Clouser Clouser 2:38 Total length: 57:29 Crew James Wan- director, screenwriter Gregg Hoffman- producer Mark Burg- producer Oren Koules- producer Leigh Whannell- screenwriter David A. Armstrong- cinematographer Kevin Greutert- editor Charlie Clouser- muisc composer Julie Berghoff- production designer Nanet Harty- art director Jennifer L. Soulages- costume designer Release Lionsgate picked up Saw's worldwide distribution rights at the Sundance Film Festival days before the film premiered on January 19, 2004. There it played to a packed theater for three nights to a positive reaction. It was the closing film at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 18, 2004. Lionsgate initially planned to release the film direct-to-video, but due to the positive reaction at Sundance, they chose to theatrical release by Halloween. It was released on October 1, 2004 in the United Kingdom, October 29, 2004 in the United States and December 2, 2004 in Australia. The film was originally rated NC-17 (No children under 17 permitted) by the Motion Picture Association of America for strong graphic violence, though after being re-edited, it was released with an R rating. Home Media The theatrical version of the film was released on VHS and DVD on February 15, 2005 in the United States. After its first week it made $9.4 million in DVD rentals and $1.7 million in VHS rentals, making it the top rental of the week. For the second week it remained as the number one DVD rental with $6.8 million, for a $16.27 million two-week total. It dropped to third place in VHS rentals with $1.09 million, for a $2.83 million two-week total. The film went on to sell more than $70 million worth of video and DVDs. A two-disc "Uncut Edition" was released on October 18, 2005 to tie in with the release of Saw II. The short film, also entitled Saw, was included on the DVD. Reception Box Office Saw opened on a Halloween weekend in 2,315 theaters and grossed $18.2 million, placing number three behind Ray ($20 million) and The Grudge ($21.8 million). According to Lionsgate's exit poll, 60% of the audience was mostly male under 25 years of age. Saw had also become Lionsgate's second best opening, after Fahrenheit 9/11's $23.9 million (2004). On its second weekend an additional 152 theaters were added, bringing the theater count to 2,467. It dropped to number four making $11 million, a 39% drop from the opening weekend. Saw opened in the United Kingdom to $2.2 million in 301 theaters, grossing a $12.3 million total in seven weeks. In Australia, it opened in 161 theaters with $1.2 million and totaled out to $3.1 million in six weeks. In Italy, the film opened on January 14, 2005 in 267 theaters to $1.7 million and grossed $6.4 million in six weeks. Saw opened to $1.5 million 187 theaters in France on March 16, 2005 and made $3.1 million by the end of its four week run. Saw came to gross $55.1 million in the United States and Canada and $47.9 million in other markets for a worldwide total of $103 million. It is the second lowest grossing film in the series after Saw VI. At the time, it became the most profitable horror film after Scream (1996). Release date (United States) Budget (estimated) Box office revenue United States/Canada Other markets Worldwide October 29, 2004 $700,000 $55,185,045 $47,911,300 $103,096,345 Critical Reviews The film received generally mixed reviews. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 48% of 162 critics have given the film a positive review, with a rating average of 5.4 out of 10. On Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, gives the film a score of 46 based on 32 reviews. Dennis Harvey of Variety gave the film a negative review after its Sundance premiere. He called it a "crude concoction sewn together from the severed parts of prior horror/serial killer pics". He called the screenplay "convoluted", criticizing the use of "flashbacks within flashbacks" and red herrings. He described the film as being "too hyperbolic to be genuinely disturbing". Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave Saw two out of four stars, calling it "an efficiently made thriller" and "well made and acted", but "finally not quite worth the ordeal it puts us through." Carla Meyer of the San Francisco Chronicle gave the film a positive review saying the film "combined B-movie acting with a twisted mind-set and visual tricks designed to camouflage cheap effects" and that it was "terrifying at some moments and insinuatingly creepy at many others". She called the killing scenes "amazingly evocative for such a low-budget movie". Empire's Kim Newman gave the film four out of five stars. He said Saw is styled like early David Fincher films and "boasts an intricate structure - complex flashbacks-within-flashbacks explain how the characters have come to this crisis - and a satisfying mystery to go with its ghastly claustrophobia". He ended her review saying, "As good an all-out, non-camp horror movie as we've had lately". Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a B minus, calling it "derivative and messy and too nonsensical for its own good". He described Jigsaw's intent as "to show you the serial killer lurking inside yourself". Gleiberman criticized Elwes' performance by saying, "Elwes ought to be featured in a seminar on the perils of overacting". Daniel M. Kimmel of the Telegram & Gazette called it "one of the most loathsome films this critic has seen in more than 20 years on the job." The New York Times's Stephen Holden gave a mixed review saying the film "does a better-than-average job of conveying the panic and helplessness of men terrorized by a sadist in a degrading environment, but it is still not especially scary. What sets its demon apart from run-of-the-mill movie serial killers is his impulse to humiliate and torture his victims and justify it with some twisted morality." He said the film is "seriously undermined by the half-baked, formulaic detective story in which the horror is framed". Carina Chocano of the Los Angeles Times also gave the film a mixed review saying, "Saw is so full of twists it ends up getting snarled. For all of his flashy engineering and inventive torture scenarios, the Jigsaw Killer comes across as an amateur. Hannibal Lecter would have him for lunch". She said the film "carelessly underscores its own shaky narrative at every turn with its mid-budget hokiness". She also noted that Elwes and Whannell had trouble keeping an American accent. Comparison to Seven (1995) When asked if the 1995 thriller film Seven was an inspiration to Saw, Whannell said "For me as the writer, definitely. I mean, Seven is just a very well constructed film, and if you're writing a thriller, it can't hurt to study it. In terms of the story though, James and I never really felt Seven was that close to our film. I guess if you stand back, you have two detectives chasing a psychopath, who uses vile methods to teach people lessons, and those points echo Seven. What we always liked about Saw, though, was the fact that the story is told from the point of view of two of the psychopaths victims, instead of the police chasing after him, as you so often see." Entertainment Weekly's Owen Gleiberman compared the plot to Seven saying, "In a blatant imitation of Seven, Saw features a lunatic sadist whose ghoulish crimes are meant, in each case, to mirror the sins of his victims. The twist here is that the psycho doesn't do the killing". Richard J. Leskosky of Champaign-Urbana's The News-Gazette said "Saw wants to be taken as another Seven. Though it features perverse gross-out scenes and a villain with a superficially pedantic motive behind his crimes (his victims, if they survive, have learned to appreciate life more), it lacks the finesse and polish of the David Fincher film". Accolades On Empire magazine's list of the 500 greatest films, Saw ranked 499th.53 Bloody Disgusting ranked the film tenth in its list of the Top 20 Horror Films of the Decade, with the article calling Saw "perhaps the most influential horror film of the decade, which kick-started a franchise.... In light of its measly $1.2 million price tag the film's quality relative to bigger-budget horror films is striking. It also takes itself seriously, which came as a breath of fresh air following the trend of wimpy tongue-in-cheek horror that had dominated the multiplexes post-Scream. More than anything, this twisted morality tale is a film made by horror fans, for horror fans; it’s gory, it's depraved, and best of all it introduced a new horror icon in Jigsaw".54 The Daily Telegraph listed the film number 14 on their Top 100 list that defined the 2000s.55 Award Category Recipient(s) Result Brussels International Festival of Fantasy Film Pegasus Audience Award James Wan Won Fantasporto International Fantasy Film Award- Best Film James Wan Nominated Golden Trailer Awards Best Horror — Nominated Gérardmer Film Festival Special Jury Prize James Wan Won Youth Jury Grand Prize James Wan Won MTV Movie Awards Best Frightened Performance Cary Elwes Nominated San Sebastián International Film Festival Audience Award- Best Feature James Wan Won Satellite Awards Outstanding DVD Extras (Uncut Edition) — Nominated Saturn Award Best DVD Special Edition Release — Nominated Best Horror Film — Nominated Teen Choice Awards Choice Movie Scream Scene Leigh Whannell Nominated Choice Movie: Thriller — Nominated Video Game A video game, also titled Saw, was developed by Zombie Studios and published by Konami. The game is set between the Saw and Saw II timeline and was released on October 6, 2009 on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC platforms. Trivia The film was funded by American dollars and is registered under the U.S. Copyright Office. Wan also said: "Initially the script was going to be made in Australia so it had a lot of Australian themes to it, but it became an American film". Sources for the budget figure vary. Some put the budget at $1 million and $1.2 million. However, Wan said in October 2010 that Saw was actually shot with $700,000.